﻿452 
  ANNUAL 
  REPORT 
  SMITHSONIAN 
  INSTITUTION, 
  1927 
  

  

  fiefs 
  of 
  antiquity. 
  These 
  two 
  States, 
  and 
  later, 
  after 
  the 
  fall 
  of 
  Chin, 
  

   those 
  into 
  which 
  its 
  territory 
  was 
  divided, 
  were 
  able 
  to 
  accomplish 
  

   more 
  easily 
  than 
  of 
  old 
  this 
  conquest 
  and 
  gradual 
  assimilation 
  of 
  the 
  

   indigenes 
  occupying 
  the 
  middle 
  basin 
  of 
  the 
  Yellow 
  River, 
  a 
  task 
  

   which 
  constituted 
  the 
  greatest 
  work 
  of 
  ancient 
  China, 
  just 
  as 
  the 
  

   absorption, 
  still 
  far 
  from 
  complete, 
  of 
  the 
  tribes 
  of 
  the 
  Yangtse 
  Basin 
  

   and 
  of 
  the 
  south 
  has 
  been 
  the 
  greatest 
  work 
  of 
  the 
  China 
  of 
  medieval 
  

   and 
  modern 
  times. 
  

  

  